


The Fault in Our Bars

by rboudreau



Series: The Fault [2]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, annoyed!Mickey, kev and mickey bromance, random friday night, the alibi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rboudreau/pseuds/rboudreau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey has to stay at the Alibi to deal with rub & tug customers during a pay-per-view event that's on TV. The bar is packed, loud, and all Mickey wants is another drink, and maybe for Ian to keep running his fingers through his hair like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fault in Our Bars

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a heads up, because I didn't say it in the first part of this series: this series will, for the most part, be unconnected from one another. So, you don't have to read part one to understand part two, and so on and so forth. Some parts might be connected, and I'll let you know if they are, but my goal is to make it so that it isn't mandatory for you to have read the previous parts to understand the new ones. So yea.

Ah, the Alibi. Where one person’s money is as green as the next, whether you’re black, white, gay, straight, old, young, or anything in between. That’s what made it the number one place to go for a drink or ten in the South Side.

Yes, the Alibi was the best bar to go to on this side of the city, but it still had its downfalls.

Like now, for example. There was a boxing championship on pay-per-view that all the regulars had chipped in to pay for, so naturally, the volume in the bar was at an all-time high. And it was packed to the brim with even more people than usual who wanted to watch the match.

Mickey had been trying to get Kev’s attention for at least five minutes now, but the bartender couldn’t hear him over the din of the bar’s patrons. He just wanted another beer and a shot, was that so much to ask?

He’d just go home if he could, but with how packed it was in here, the rub and tug was booming, and Mickey needed to collect money from his customers so that Kev could man the bar.

Ian pushed his way through the crowd to get to his boyfriend, which took a lot more effort than it should have. He’d just wanted to watch part of the match, but in doing that, he’d gotten sucked in to the mass of people. 

He finally reached the edge of the bar where Mickey was sitting and grabbed hold of Mickey’s arm to steady himself.

“Hey! Sorry, I’ve been trying to push through everyone for like ten minutes. This is nuts.” Mickey nodded.

“Yea, tell me about it, I can’t even get a _fucking beer!_ ” he shouted near the end of the sentence in Kev’s direction. No luck. “Jesus Christ, you have got to be kidding me!”

Ian laughed. “Can’t hear you?” Mickey shook his head while pinching the bridge of his nose. He was beyond irritated. Ian smiled and rubbed his hand up and down Mickey’s back, grabbing Mickey’s empty glass with his other hand. “Want your usual?”

“You’re never gonna get his attention.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “Do you want anything else?”

Mickey hesitated and nodded. “Shot of Jack?” Ian nodded and squeezed his arm before disappearing once again with Mickey’s empty glass.

While Ian was gone, Mickey received money from a few more rub and tug customers (and had to threaten a couple others that were giving him a hard time). He sighed and turned back to the bar, counting the bills and making a note of how much he had in a notebook.

A couple minutes later, he felt a pair of lips against his neck as a beer slid in front of him. Ian pressed himself against Mickey’s side and smiled down at him.

“Miss me?”

Mickey snorted and grabbed his beer, taking a large sip. “I was ‘bout to bash your fucking face in if that wasn’t you.”

Ian grinned. “Trust me, if anyone other than me was pressing up against you and kissing your neck, I’d bash their face in first.” He brought his other hand to the bar, revealing the shot of Jack in his hand, and placed it in front of Mickey.

Mickey smiled and looked up at Ian with a playful look in his eyes. “Oh yea, tough guy?”

Ian nodded, leaning down closer to him. “Mhmmm,” he assured. “They’ve got another thing coming if they think they can touch what’s mine.”

“Yours, huh? What, you own me now?” He still had the playful look in his eye, and Ian nodded, pressing his forehead against Mickey’s.

“Just like you own me.” He closed the distance between them, kissing Mickey firmly on the lips. They pulled away with small, private smiles on their faces.

“How’d you get these drinks, anyway?” Mickey asked, turning back to his notebook.

Ian shrugged. “I told people I was going to start fucking anyone who didn’t get out of my way. Then I just went behind the bar and got everything myself. Kev didn’t even notice.”

Mickey stared at him blankly for a moment. “You threatened them with your cock?” Ian chuckled.

“Hey, it got them to move. Except one guy, who looked like he was considering letting me,” Ian trailed off. 

“If you’re fucking anyone other than me in this bar, it better be upstairs making money with the whores.” Ian grinned, knowing he wasn’t being serious.

“I don’t want anyone’s ass but yours,” he assured him. Mickey brushed it off, but Ian could see the smug smirk peaking up on his face. Ian tangled their fingers together and turned his head to watch the match on the TV.

**

A couple hours later, Ian had taken to running his fingers through Mickey’s hair when Mickey wasn’t dealing with rub and tug customers. Mickey had protested at first, but all the noise in the bar was giving him a headache, and what Ian was doing felt good.

“I don’t know how your brain isn’t throbbing like mine is,” Mickey complained, leaning his head closer to Ian. The redhead laughed and continued rubbing his head.

“I live in a house with my family. I’m used to the noise.”

Mickey grunted. “Terry could be fuckin’ loud, but he’d take my brothers out on runs so often, it was like Mandy and I lived by ourselves half the time.” Ian nodded, then immediately winced as the bar erupted in cheers as someone got knocked out onscreen. “Remind me why I started the rub and tug in a bar?”

“Because Kev’s the only person you know who needed money bad enough that they’d let you have prostitutes working in their place of business?” 

Mickey groaned, while Ian just smiled sympathetically and squeezed the back of his neck. He rubbed the muscles in Mickey’s shoulders, causing him to moan softly. Ian grinned and leaned down to whisper in his ear. 

“Y’know I love when you make sounds like that.” He bit Mickey’s earlobe lightly.

“Am I gonna have to hose you two down?” Kev joked as he made his way over to their side of the bar. Mickey glared and waved his shot glass at him.

“How ‘bout you just give me another shot before I shoot you in the fucking face?”

It was a testament to how close the two had gotten that Kev merely rolled his eyes at the threat and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels to top off Mickey’s shot glass. Mickey’s phone started to buzz on the bar top, and he looked down at it to see the alarm message flashing across the screen.

“S’time for your meds, man,” he said in Ian’s direction before downing the shot quickly. 

“Water or juice?” Kev asked Ian.

“Juice. Thanks.”

Kev grabbed a glass and the orange juice and began pouring it inside. Mickey shoved his hand in his pocket, pulling out Ian’s ‘pills-of-the-day’ container and handing it over to Ian. He watched as Ian popped out the handful of pills in the Friday Night section and dropped them all in his mouth at once. He took a large swig of the juice once Kev handed it to him and gulped them all down. He finished off the glass and put it back on the counter, nodding his thanks to Kev.

“Why don’t you go home?” Mickey suggested. “The pills make you drowsy, and I’m gonna be here for a while longer until these shitheads finish getting their rocks off.”

Ian shook his head. “No, it’s okay, I wanna stay with you.”

Mickey started to speak before Kev interrupted. “Why don’t you both go home? I can handle everything for the rest of the night.” Mickey raised an eyebrow at him.

“You sure?” The bartender nodded.

“It’s starting to die down a bit, and the last match is next, so I can manage with whoever else goes upstairs the rest of the night. You guys go home.” Mickey hesitated and then nodded slowly.

“Thanks, man.” He handed over the notebook and the envelope he’d been keeping the money in.

He got off the stool, grabbed his phone of the bar and then started following Ian to the door. Ian waved at Kev once more, then opened the door, the two of them walking outside into the night. He offered his hand to Mickey with a small hesitant smile on his face, and fuck if Mickey wouldn’t do anything to make Ian happy. He took Ian’s hand, lacing their fingers together, and watched the smile on his boyfriend’s face grow. As they made their way home, Mickey felt grateful to Kev for taking over so he could go home with Ian, and he knew that somehow they had become friends without Mickey even meaning for it to happen.

Maybe the Alibi wasn’t _so_ bad.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I appreciate any and all comments/kudos/critique you are willing to give me. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
> 
> If you want to chat, you can find me on tumblr at [ be-your-own-anchor5](http://www.be-your-own-anchor5.tumblr.com)


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